Is there a female character who is primarily defined by her emotional and/or sexual relationship with a man or men? [why this matters]

WILDCARD SCORE:-5

Is there anything either positive or negative in the film’s representation of women not already accounted for here? (points will vary)

While she isn’t Manic Pixie, the Little Red-Haired Girl is definitely a dream girl. She isn’t a character, and we only ever just barely glimpse her face. She is placed on a pedestal by Charlie Brown, and without him ever knowing a single thing about her except that she is pretty, she becomes a motivating factor for him to improve himself in order to be worthy of her. And his journey is over when she finally speaks to him, at the very end of the film, to tell him how awesome he is.

TOTAL SCORE:-20

IS THE FILM’S DIRECTOR FEMALE? No (does not impact scoring)

IS THE FILM’S SCREENWRITER FEMALE? No (does not impact scoring)

BOTTOM LINE: This adaptation of the long-running comic strip could have earned a few points by keeping Lucy in her traditional role as an antagonist for Charlie Brown. But Lucy is cast aside in favor of elevating the anonymous Little Red-Haired Girl into a dehumanized object of desire for him. Meanwhile, in Snoopy’s fantasy of battling the Red Baron over the skies of Europe, he is motivated by a pretty pink poodle whom he must rescue when she is captured by the enemy. A comic strip that had an everyman (and everywoman) resonance in the constant put-uponness of Charlie Brown’s good nature, bad luck, and endless optimism has descended into tedious clichés about male characters who are driven on their personal journeys by women who are literally nothing more than beautiful to behold.